The Fatal Revenant Part 4

The ur-viles and Waynhim responded with a low mutter which may have expressed approval or disbelief. Like them, if in an entirely different fashion, the merewives were artificial beings, born of magic and knowledge rather than of natural flesh.

Kastenessen, Linden thought. New fears shook her. She believed Esmer instinctively. Kastenessen had burned her with his fury in the open center of the Verge of Wandering. And yesterday he had influenced the Demondim, persuading them to alter their intentions.

"That's why you serve him," she murmured unsteadily. serve him utterly. You inherited your power from him."p> serve him utterly. You inherited your power from him."p> His power*and his hunger for destruction.

"As I also serve you," he told her for the second time.

Kastenessen. The name was a knell; a funereal gong adumbrating echoes in all directions. Her nausea was growing worse. The Elohim had forcibly Appointed Kastenessen to prevent or imprison a peril in the farthest north of the world. But now he had broken free of his Durance. When Lord Foul had said, I have merely whispered a word of counsel here and there, and awaited events, he may have been speaking of Kastenessen.

She knew how powerful the Elohim could be, any of them Kastenessen had provided for her escape from the horde. Had he also enabled Covenant and Jeremiah to reach her? Did he want all three of them alive?

Still scrambling to catch up with the implications of Esmer's revelation, she mused aloud, "So when Anele talks about skurj*"

He names the beasts"*Esmer shook his head*"nay, the monstrous creatures of fire which Kastenessen was Appointed to contain. They come to a.s.sail the Land because he has severed or eluded the Durance which compelled him to his doom."

Behind the Mithil's Plunge, Anele had referred to Kastenessen. I could have preserved the Durance! he had cried. Stopped the skurj. With the Staff! If I had been worthy.

Did you sojourn under the Sunbane with Sunder and Hollian, and learn nothing of ruin?

According to Anele*or to the native stone that he had touched behind the Plunge*the Elohim had done nothing to secure Kastenessen's imprisonment.

Aching for Anele's pain, and for her own peril, Linden asked Esmer softly, "What about this morning? The Demondim let Covenant and my son reach Revelstone." Covenant had given her an explanation. She wanted to know if he had told the truth. "Was that Kastenessen's doing too?'

"You do not comprehend," Esmer protested dolefully; as regret-ridden as the wind that drove seafarers into the Soulbiter. "Your ignorance precludes it. Do you not know that the Viles, those beings of terrible and matchless lore, were once a lofty and admirable race? Though they roamed the Land widely, they inhabited the Lost Deep in caverns as ornate and majestic as castles. There they devoted their vast power and knowledge to the making of beauty and wonder, and all of their works were filled with loveliness. For an age of the Earth, they spurned the heinous evils buried among the roots of Gravin Threndor, and even in the time of Berek Lord-Fatherer no ill was known of them."

Esmer's ambiguous conflicts had grown so loud that Linden could not shut them out. They hurt her nerves like the carnage before Revelstone's gates, when the Demondim had slaughtered so many Masters and their mounts.

She had asked about Kastenessenabout Covenant*and Esmer talked of Viles.

"Yet a shadow had already fallen upon them," Cail's son continued, "like and unlike the shadow upon the hearts of the Elohim. The corruption of the Viles, and of their makings, the Demondim, transpired thus."

Wait, she wanted to insist. Stop. That isn't what I need to know. But the accentuation of Esmer's manner held her. He was right: her ignorance precluded her from asking the right questions*and from recognizing useful answers.

"Many tales are told," said Esmer, "some to conceal, some to reveal. Yet it is sooth that long before the Despiser's coming to the littoral of the Land, he had stretched out his hand to awaken the malevolence of Lifeswallower, the Great Swamp, as it lurked in the heart of Sarangrave Flat, for he delights in cruel hungers. And from that malevolence*conjoined with the rapacity of humankind*had emerged the three Ravers, moksha, turiya, and samadhi. By such means was the One Forest decimated, and its long sentience maimed, until an Elohim came to preserve its remnants.

"Awakened to themselves," Esmer explained as though the knowledge grieved him, "the trees created the Forestals to guard them, and bound the Elohim into the Colossus of the Fall as an Interdict against the Ravers, repulsing them from the Upper Land.

"Later the Despiser established Ridjeck Thome as his seat of power, though he did not then declare himself to human knowledge. There he gathered the Ravers to his service when the Colossus began to wane. And with his guidance, they together, or some among them, began cunningly to twist the hearts of the sovereign and isolate Viles. Forbidden still by the Colossus, the Ravers could not enter the Lost Deep. Instead they met with Viles that roamed east of Landsdrop, exploring the many facets of the Land. With whispers and subtle blandishments, and by slow increments, the Ravers obliquely taught the Viles to loathe their own forms.

"Being Ravers, the brothers doubtless began by sharing their mistrust and contempt toward the surviving mind of the One Forest, and toward the Forestals. From that beginning, however, the Viles were readily led to despise themselves, for all contempt turns upon the contemptuous, as it must."

Esmer had raised his head: he faced Linden as steadily as he could. But his eyes were the fraught hue of heavy seas crashing against each other, and his raiment gusted about him in the throes of a private storm.

"In that same age," he went on, "as the perversion of the Viles progressed, samadhi Raver evaded the Interdict by pa.s.sing beyond the Southron Range to taint the people who gave birth to Berek Lord-Fatherer. By his influence upon their King, samadhi instigated the war which led Berek through terrible years and cruel bloodshed to his place as the first High Lord in the Land.

"Among the crags of Mount Thunder, Berek had sworn himself to the service of the Land. But he was new to power, and much of his effort was turned to the discovering of the One Tree and the forming of the Staff of Law. He could not halt all of humankind's depredations against the forests. And as the trees dwindled, so the strength of the Colossus was diminished.

"Nonetheless in the time of High Lord Damelon the Interdict endured. When the Viles turned their lore and their self-loathing to the creation of the Demondim in the Lost Deep, the Ravers were precluded from interference."

Esmer nodded as if to himself. His gaze drifted away from Linden. He may have been too absorbed in his tale, in rue and old bitterness, to remember that he was not answering her. Nevertheless the Waynhim and ur-viles heeded him in utter silence, as if their Weird hinged on his words. For their sake, and because she could not evaluate his reasons for speaking, she swallowed her impulse to interrupt him.

"And the Viles were too wise to labor foolishly, or in ignorance. They did not seek to renew their own loathing, but rather to render it impotent. Therefore the Demondim were sp.a.w.ned free of their creators' stain. Though they lacked some portion of the Viles' majesty and lore, they were not ruled by contempt. Instead they were a stern race, holding themselves apart from the Viles in renunciation.

"Yet across the years the Demondim also were turned to abhorrence.

Dwelling apart from the Viles, they made their habitation in proximity to the II!earth Stone and other banes. And the evil within the Sarangrave called to them softly, as it had to the Viles. When at last the Demondim ventured to seek the source of that call, they entered the Lower Land and Sarangrave Flat, and there they met the fate of their makers, for the Ravers gained power over them also."

Complex emotions seemed to tug like contrary winds at Esmer's cymar, and his voice resembled the threat of thunder beyond the Westron Mountains. "Moksha Jehannum took possession of their loremaster, and turiya with him, luring the Vile-sp.a.w.n to self-revulsion. Though the loremaster was later slain by the krill of Loric Vilesilencer, the harm was done. The Demondim also learned the loathing of trees, and so came to loathe themselves. Thus they met the doom of their makers, and the labors which created the ur-viles and the Waynhim began.

"Unlike the Viles, however, the Demondim were seduced to the Despiser's service. Their makers had created within them an aspect of mortality and dross, and they were unable to perceive that the Despiser's scorn toward them exceeded their own. Nor was their desire to follow the dictates of their loathing restricted by the Interdict. They acted upon the Upper Land while the Ravers were hidden from the Council of Lords, and the Despiser himself remained unknown.

"Throughout the years of Loric Vilesilencer and High Lord Kevin, the Demondim pursued evil in the Land, until at last they partic.i.p.ated in the treachery which broke Kevin Landwaster's resolve and led him to the Ritual of Desecration. That the Demondim themselves would also perish in the Ritual, they could not foresee, for they did not comprehend the disdain of their master. Therefore they were unmade."

The listening creatures had moved still closer. They seemed to hear Esmer with their nostrils as much as their ears. And as they approached, more and more of the Waynhim were mingled among the ur-viles. For the moment, at least, they had set aside their long enmity.

For millennia thereafter," Esmer sighed, "the ur-viles likewise served the Despiser and opposed the Lords, following in the steps of their makers, though the Waynhim chose another path. Yet the Demondim had accomplished both less and more than their purpose. The ur-viles and Waynhim were entirely enfleshed. For that reason, their blindness exceeded that of the Demondim*as did their inadvertent capacity for wisdom. Being imprisoned in mortality, they became heir to a power, or a need, which is inherent in all beings that think and may be slain. By their very nature, they were compelled to reconsider the significance of their lives. Flesh and death inspired the ur-viles and Waynhim to conceive differing Weirds to justify themselves*and to reinterpret their Weirds as they wished. In consequence, their allegiances were vulnerable to trans.m.u.tation."

Linden recognized aspects of truth in what he said, but that did nothing to relieve her distress. Her mouth was full of bile and illness, and she did not know how much longer she could contain her nausea. Esmer's conflicts aggravated it. The Demondim-sp.a.w.n may have understood his intent: she did not.

"Why are you telling me this?" she asked abruptly. "It isn't what I need. I have to know why the Demondim didn't kill Jeremiah and Covenant. You said that Kastenessen convinced those monsters to let me escape. Did he do the same for my son and Covenant'?"

A flare of anger like a glimpse of the II!earth Stone showed in Esmer's eyes. "And are you also ignorant," he retorted, "that the Cavewights were once friendly to the people of the Land? I wish you to grasp the nature of such creatures. You inquire of Kastenessen, and I reply. That which appears evil need not have been so from the beginning, and need not remain so until the end.

"Doubtless your knowledge of Viles and Demondim and ur-viles has been gleaned from the Haruchai." He had recovered his scorn. "Have they also informed you that when both the Viles and the Demondim had been undone, the ur-viles retained the lore of their making? Do you comprehend that the ur-viles continued to labor in the Lost Deep when all of their creators had pa.s.sed away? Though the Waynhim did not arrogate such tasks to themselves, the ur-viles endeavored to fashion miracles of lore and foresight which would alter the fate of their kind, and of the Land, and of the very Earth."

He had shaken Linden again. Holding the Staff in the crook of her arm, she pushed her fingers through the damp tangles of her hair: she wanted to push them through her thoughts in an effort to straighten out the confusion of Esmer's indirect answers.

"Wait a minute," she protested with her hands full of uncertainty. "Stave said*"

He had said, Much of the black lore of the Viles and the Demondim endured to them*and much did not. Both Waynhim and ur-viles continued to dwindle. They created no descendants, and when they were slain nothing returned of them.

Esmer snorted. The Haruchai speak of that which they know, which is little. The truth has been made plain to you, for you have known Vain. You cannot doubt that the ur-viles pursued the efforts of their makers.

At the same time, however, more of these creatures"*he gestured around him*"came into being, both ur-viles and Waynhim. For that reason, I have been able to gather so many to your service."

Linden tried to interrupt him again; slow him down so that she could think. He overrode her harshly. Twisted by the contradictory demands of his heritage, he may still have been trying to answer her original question.

But the ur-viles have created other makings also. They did not cease their labors when they had formed Vain, for they were not content. Their reinterpretation of their Weird was not yet satisfied. Therefore they have made*"

Suddenly he stopped as if he had caught himself on the edge of a precipice. Chagrin darkened his gaze as he stared at her, apparently unable or unwilling to look away.

"Made what?' Linden breathed softly. His manner alarmed her.

The ur-viles and Waynhim crowded closer. Ripples of dark power ran among them as if they were sharing intimations of vitriol; nascent outrage.

Linden unclosed the Staff from the crook of her arm and wrapped both of her hands around it. She had too many fears: she could not allow them to daunt her. "Made what'?" she repeated more strongly.

Esmer's green eyes seemed to spume with anger or dread as he p.r.o.nounced hoa.r.s.ely, "Manacles."

She gaped at him in surprise. What, manacles? Fetters?

"Why'?" she demanded. "Who are they for'?" Or what?

Which of the powers abroad in the Land did the ur-viles hope to imprison?

He shook his head. At the same time, the creatures started barking again, arguing incomprehensibly in their guttural tongue. Some of them made gestures that may have been threats or admonitions. Force rolled through them, small wavelets of energy like ripples spreading outward from the impact of their inhuman emotions; but they did not seek to concentrate it.

Linden wanted to cover her ears. "What are they saying?" Her voice held an involuntary note of pleading. "Esmer, tell me."

At once, the froth of waves seemed to fill his eyes, concealing their deeper hues. They have heard me. They acknowledge my intent, though you do not. Now some debate the interpretation of their Weirds. Others demand that I explain their purpose further." He folded his arms like bands across his chest. But I will not. The debt between us I have redeemed, and more. In this, there is no power sufficient to compel me."

Around him, the shouting of the creatures subsided to an angry mutter. Or perhaps their low sounds expressed resignation rather than ire.

Manacles*? In frustration, Linden wanted to hit him with the Staff. He still had not answered her question about his grandsire*or shed any light on the conundrum of Covenant and Jeremiah.

Struggling to keep her balance amid a gyre of information and implications which she did not know how to accommodate, she retreated to surer ground.

All right. Forget the manacles. I don't need to know." Not now, when she had so many more immediate concerns. "Tell me something I can understand. How did you convince your ur-viles and Waynhim to come with you?' She knew why her own small band had combined their efforts against the Demondim. Even now, however, she could not be certain that the truce between them would hold. And those with Esmer had not shared in her battles. "They've been enemies for thousands of years. Why have they set that aside'?"

Esmer raised one hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. Closing his eyes, he ma.s.saged them briefly with his fingertips. As he did so, he replied in a tone of exaggerated patience, as if he had already answered her question in terms that even a child could comprehend.

"To the ur-viles, I offered opportunity to see fulfilled the mighty purpose which they began in the making of Vain. To the Waynhim, I promised a joining with their few kindred, that they might be powerful in the Land's service." Then he lowered his hand, letting her see the wind-tossed disturbance in his eyes. "And of both I required this covenant, that they must cease all warfare between them."

As if in a.s.sent, the creatures fell silent again.

Before Linden could ask another question, Esmer added, "Wildwielder, you exhaust my restraint. You have demanded answers. I have provided them, seeking to relieve the darkness of my nature. But one of the Haruchai approaches from that place"-again he indicated Revelstone-"and I will not suffer his presence. I cannot. Already my heart frays within me. Soon it will demand release. If I do not depart, I will wreak-"

He stopped. His expression and his green eyes seemed to beseech her for forbearance.

But her nausea and distress were too great. Her son and Thomas Covenant had refused to let her hold them. They might as well have rejected her years of unfulfilled love. Instead of honoring Esmer's appeal, she said grimly, "If you didn't insist on doing harm, you wouldn't need relief."

For an instant, he looked so stricken that she thought he might weep. But then, as if by an act of will, he recovered his scorn. "If I did not insist upon aiding you," he told her acidly, "I would not be required to commit harm."

He had told her the history of the Viles and Demondim in order to justify himself: she believed that, although it may have been only part of the truth. He wanted her to trust that the creatures which he had brought forward from the past would serve her. At the same time, he was plainly trying to warn her*

But she could not afford to think about such things now. He was about to depart: she would not be able to stop him. And she still had learned nothing about Covenant and Jeremiah.

"All right," she said again, trying to speak more quickly. "I accept your explanation. I accept"-she gestured around at the ur-viles and Waynhim"all of them. You're trying to help me, even though I don't understand it. But I still need answers.

"You said that there's a shadow on the hearts of the Elohim. What does that mean?" She meant, What does Kastenessen have to do with Covenant and my son? But Esmer had already evaded that question. "Why didn't they stop Kastenessen from breaking free?'

Esmer groaned as if she endangered his sanity. Gritting his teeth, he said, "The Elohim believe that they are equal to all things. This is false. Were it true, the Earth entire would exist in their image, and they would have no need to fear the rousing of the Worm of the World's End. Nonetheless they persist in their belief. That is shadow enough to darken the heart of any being.

"They did not act to preserve Kastenessen's Durance because they saw no need. Are you not the Wildwielder? And have you not returned to the Land? The skurj are mindless beasts, ravaging to feed. Kastenessen's will rules them, but they cannot harm the Elohim. And you will oppose both Kastenessen and his monsters. What then remains to cause the Elohim concern? They have done that which they deem needful. They have forewarned the people of the Land, speaking often of the peril of the halfhand when the Haruchai have effaced any other knowledge or defense. Their Wurd requires nothing more. While you endure, they fear no other threat."

Linden flinched. She should have been prepared for Esmer's a.s.sertion. Since their first meeting millennia ago, the Elohim had distrusted and disdained Thomas Covenant. They had been convinced even then that she, not Covenant, should be the one to hold and use white gold. And later, just a few days ago, Esmer had said, You have become the Wildwielder, as the Elohim knew that you must.

Nevertheless he filled her with dismay.

"Wait a minute," she protested. "You have to tell me. What's 'the peril of the halfhand'? You can't mean the Humbled. They don't have any power-and they don't want to threaten the Land. And you can't mean my son. That poor boy has been Lord Foul's prisoner ever since he came here. He doesn't have a ring, or a staff, or lore." He retained only his racecar, pitiable and useless. "He has power now, but he must be getting it from someone else.

"No." She shook her head in denial. "You're talking about Thomas Covenant. But how is he dangerous? My G.o.d, Esmer, he's already saved the Land twice. And he's probably been holding the Arch of Time together ever since Joan started her caesures. Why do the Elohim think that anybody has to Beware the halfhand?"

"Wildwielder." Esmer seemed to throw up his hands in disgust or apprehension. "Always you persist in questions which require no response, or which serve no purpose, or which will cause my destruction. You waste my a.s.sistance, when any attempt at aid or guidance is cruel to me. Do you mean to demand the entire knowledge of the Earth, while the Land itself is brought to ruin, and Time with it?'

"It's not that simple!" she snapped urgently. "Practically everything is being hidden from me," and not only by Cail's son. "When I do learn something, it isn't relevant to my problems. Even with the Staff, I might as well be blind.

"You've at least got eyes. You see things that I can't live without. You're in my debt. You said so. Maybe that's why these ur-viles and Waynhim are here. Maybe it isn't. But if I'm asking the wrong questions, whose fault is that? I've got nothing but questions. How am I supposed to know which are the right ones? How can I help wasting you when you won't tell me what I need to know?"

Esmer's sudden anguish was so acute that it seemed to splash against her skin like spray; and the doleful green of his gaze cried out to her. In response, her stomach twisted as though she had swallowed poison. Another mutter arose from the watching creatures, a sound as sharp as fangs. The air felt too thick to breathe: she had difficulty drawing it into her lungs.

As if the words were being wrung from him by the combined insistence of the Waynhim and ur-viles, he hissed, "You must be the first to drink of the EarthBlood."

For a moment longer, he remained in front of her, letting her see that his distress was as poignant as a wail. Then he left.

She did not see him vanish. Instead he seemed to sink back like a receding wave until he was gone as if he had never been there at all, leaving her with the fate of the Land on her shoulders and too little strength to carry it alone.

The abrupt cessation of her nausea gave her no relief at all.

Love and Strangers Linden hardly saw the ur-viles and Waynhim disperse, withdrawing apparently at random across the hillsides. With Esmer gone, they seemed to have no further purpose. They kept their distance from Glimmermere. And none of them headed toward Revelstone. As they drifted away, small cl.u.s.ters of Waynhim followed larger groups of ur viles, or chose directions of their own. Soon they were gone, abandoning her to her dilemmas.

You must be the first to drink of the EarthBlood.

In the west, a storm-front continued to acc.u.mulate behind the majesty of the mountains. Leery of being scourged by winds and rain and hostility, she peered for a moment at the high threat of the thunderheads, the clouds streaming past the jagged peaks. But she saw nothing unnatural there: no malice, no desire for pain. The harm which had harried her return to the Verge of Wandering-malevolence that she now believed had arisen from Kastenessen's frustration and power-was entirely absent. When this storm broke over the plateau, it would bring only torrents, the necessary vehemence of the living world. And when it pa.s.sed, it would leave lucent and enriched the gra.s.s-clad hillsides, the feather-leaved swaths of mimosa, the tall stands of cedar and pine.

Aching, she wished that she could find ease in such things. But Thomas Covenant and Jeremiah had refused to let her touch them; and Esmer had foiled her efforts to find out what was wrong with them. Her fear that they had been herded toward her remained unresolved.

Covenant had claimed responsibility for that feat-but how could she know whether his a.s.sertions were even possible? How did his place in the Arch of Time enable him to violate time's most fundamental strictures? Had he indeed become a being of pure paradox, as capable of saving or d.a.m.ning the Earth as white gold itself?

And Jeremiah had not simply recovered his mind: he appeared to have acquired the knowledge and understanding of a fifteen-year-old boy, even though he had been effectively absent from himself for ten of those years. That should have been enough for her. It was more, far more, than she could have hoped for if she had rescued him with her own strength and determination; her own love.

But he and Covenant had denied her. Her son had gained power-and had used it to repel her. They kept their distance even though every particle of her heart and soul craved to hold them in her arms and never let them go. And they claimed that they had good reason for doing so. Instead of relief, joy, or desire-the food for which her soul hungered-she felt only an unutterable loss.

Don't touch him! Don't touch either of us!

Faced with Esmer's surprises and obfuscations, she had failed to ask the right questions; to make him tell her why Covenant and her son were so changed. Now she had no choice except to wrest understanding from Covenant himself. Or from Jeremiah. Somehow.

Keep her away from us until I'm ready.

Her heart was full of pain, in spite of Glimmermere's healing, as she turned at last to ascend the hillside toward Revelstone. How had the man whom she had loved here, in this very place, become a being who could not tolerate the affirmation of Law? And where had Jeremiah obtained the lore, the magic, or the need to reject her yearning embrace?

She did not mean to wait until Covenant decided that he was ready. She had loved him and her son too long and too arduously to be treated as nothing more than a hindrance.

But first she hoped to talk to the Mandoubt. The older woman had been kind to Linden. She might be willing to say more about her strange insights. In any case, her replies could hardly be less revealing than Esmer's As Linden reached the crest of the hills which cupped and concealed Glimmermere, the southeastward stretch of the upland plateau opened before her. Distraught as she was, she might still have lingered there for a moment to drink in the spring-kissed landscape: the flowing green of the gra.s.s, the numinous blue of the jacarandas' flowers, the yellow splash of blooms among the mimosas. But Manethrall Mahrtiir stood at the foot of slope below her, plainly watching for her return. And in the middle distance, she saw Stave's solitary figure striding purposefully toward her. Their proximity drew her down the hillside to meet them.

She wanted a moment alone with Mahrtiir before Stave came near enough to overhear her.